


Sight

by karakael



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6298603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karakael/pseuds/karakael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one of Kabuto's new charges sees a memory he can't understand he follows it to the source - and in the process irritates the heck out of Karin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sight

Karin couldn’t tell all of the Shins apart, and she didn’t try. They still were laboring under the hive-mind tendency their originator had let develop so there wasn’t much point. If she spoke to one, eventually the whole herd would hear of it, and no decision would be made until they all came to a unanimous agreement. 

Kabuto, danm him, had come up with an elegant solution to the problem. Rather than simply name them outright, he insisted that the Shins choose their own names, and until that point be identified by their place in the order…And by the small summon-snake he had assigned to each one. While the Shins looked identical, the snakes came in hundreds of hues and stripe-patterns, making it possible for an outsider to recognize who they spoke to.

Or, in this case, recognize who was following them about the compound, inscrutable expression on his tiny face.

She chose to confront the master about this, knowing the Shin himself would offer up no explanations. 

So Karin flounced into the new branch orphanage offices, slammed down her paperwork, and said;

“One of your brats is stalking me.”

Kabuto glanced up from his coffee to find an irate red-head glaring him down. He sighed.

“That would be One-One-Eight, I assume. Purple snake with thick green stripes? He’s considering the name "Ami”. “

Karin considered, then nodded. She recognized the snake, if not the boy. Kabuto probably had a name for that, too. He had an unhealthy obsession with naming things he had a hand in creating.

"His interest in you is likely my fault. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care whose fault it is, I want to know why he’s doing it! And if he’s going to stop any time soon. It’s getting bloody creepy, those sharingan always on me.”

Not that Kabuto would know, surrounded by those eyes all the time. Karin briefly wondered if moving the Shin away from the bulk of the orphanage had been a good idea. Sure, it protected the rest of the kids from the creepy, kill-happy clones, but Kabuto had never been the best at self-identity. He was putting himself in danger of backsliding every second he spent with the children.

“He won’t hurt you, I promise. He is simply…trying to understand something, and you are the best example he can find.”

“So that’s why he’s got his sharingan out all the time? He’s _recording_ me? That doesn’t make me feel any better!”

At least Kabuto looked a bit apologetic. But there was something about his eyes…Twenty years with the man had finally given Karin the ability to notice when he was hiding information or emotions behind that seemingly stoic mask.

“There’s more to it, isn’t there? Come on, spill!”

Kabuto coughed. “Ami asked me a question and was not satisfied with my answer. He decided to simply take the answer from my mind…And I was not fast enough to deflect him. The memory he saw led him to you.”

Now the orphanage director looked openly uncomfortable, and Karin couldn’t blame him. Part of the reason Kabuto was able to control the Shin was their respect of his abilities. Being able to catch him in a genjitsu, even for a few moments, destabilized his hold over them, and at a time before their individuation fully took.

But if only one Shin seemed interested in her, then the boy had kept whatever had had found in Kabuto’s head to himself. So rather than a threat to stability, it became another teaching moment. 

‘Fine. He can follow me around all he wants. But you still haven’t told me the question he asked.“

If possible, Kabuto looked more uncomfortable. But he answered anyways.

"He asked what love is.”

————- 

“Love? It’s the emotion that makes you value others more than yourself.”

The Shin looked at him blankly. “So I love my…” He paused, feeling out the new word that Kabuto had taught them, “…brothers? Since if I die, the collective will replace me.”

Kabuto looked levelly at the boy. He had hoped he wouldn’t have to answer this question until much, much later. The Shins did not even have a concept of empathy yet. Love would be impossible to understand without that foundation.

“Its…similar to that, yes. But most people do not belong to a collective. They can never be 'replaced’. The closest they -we - can come is by seeing our children survive.”

The Shin considered this. “In such a case one might sacrifice themselves so their children would survive. That is logical.”

“Yes. But humans are not logical. They are motivated by emotions like love to do what is best for their 'collectives’. ”

“But that could cause errors.”

“Yes. Emotions do that. But the benefits outweigh the costs.”

The Shin clearly didn’t believe him, but considered his words none-the-less.

“So to understand 'love’ I must feel the emotion. Give it to me, please.”

Kabuto’s mind whirled, trying to parse what the boy could possibly mean. He realized just a moment to late, and genjitsu took effect the same moment his hands met in the seal to block it.

———– 

“So he caught one of your memories of Orochimaru?”

Kabuto looked at her like she was crazy.

“No, thank all the spirits. I doubt I would ever be able to explain that 'error’ well enough to undo the damage. He found something much more recent.”

“But who - Oh. Oh.” She flushed. “Kabuto, I didn’t - I mean - ”

He shrugged. “I love easily. His Lordship could never break me of that habit.”

“yes, but -”

“But?”

Karin searched for the words to express how flattered she was at Kabuto’s affection. After Sasuke she had never really considered that someone could love her for, well, _her_. Certainly not enough to be the first thing that came to mind at the word. But their relationship…she laughed, surprised and amused all at once.

“That poor boy. Imagine trying to understand what we have?”

Kabuto smiled and shook his head. “In fact, I think it was the best way he could have learned.”

—– 

Five seconds. That was all Shin-118 got, his father’s hands moving too fast and the genjitsu snapping back almost instantly. Five seconds of memory, jumbled and confused, full of sounds and sights and sensations he couldn’t even fathom.

But he felt it, none the less, a taste of that emotion he had never experienced before, carried on the back of that flicker of memory.

_The smell of damp, clean hair. Red, spilled across his chest, its source a soft weight against his side. A quiet, contented noise, as the form beside him shifts, pressing closer, nuzzling into his shoulder. Morning sunlight, caught on red eyelashes, just peeking open. The felling of a smile on his face, mirrored on hers, sleep not quite done with either of them. And through it all the feeling of a warm weight on his chest, almost painful in the way it fills the whole world with joy._  
  
Shin, soon to be Shin-Ami, blinked the memory away from his mind, but it stuck, following him around his daily chores, hounding him with all the questions it raised. None of the logic Kabuto spoke of was in that moment of memory. It was all just…feelings.

He followed the woman around, trying to understand what was it about her that could prompt such an illogical reaction from his father, but it explained nothing.

Then a brother took a blow for him, one that should have been fatal. Shin-125 did so without hesitating, and Shin-Ami felt a plethora of horrible emotions at it. Worry. Anger. Frustration. But when he saw him in medical…none of that came to mind. His brother was alive, and he felt that same, heart-clenching happiness, and he could not explain his tears.


End file.
